The Singular Bird of Love
A Novella-Length Love Story

This novella comes with a 100-minute film screenplay.

Filming License Fee: RMB 300,000 for Mainland China, Hong Kong, and overseas territories; TWD 600,000 for Taiwan.

Please contact the copyright holder, Chen Qingyang, at 54088rabbit@gmail.com.

Story Synopsis

President Tsai Shih-Nan receives an invitation from his old classmate Chen Mei-Lan to attend her son’s wedding. His heart fills with mixed emotions as memories of the past come flooding back. Ever since high school, the nickname “Indoor Virgin” has followed Tsai Shih-Nan wherever he goes. If there is truly a man in this world whom women simply forget, it would probably be Tsai Shih-Nan.

Tsai Shih-Nan, Lin Kuang-Ming, Chen Mei-Lan, and Li Ching-Ya were classmates in junior high and all lived in Neiwan Village, Hengshan Township, Hsinchu. They later entered Hsinchu Senior High School and Hsinchu Girls’ Senior High School respectively. Every day, the four of them took the same train to and from school, and they shared a close friendship.

One morning, Shih-Nan left home later than usual. By the time he rushed onto the station platform, the train had just begun to pull away. He ran after it at full speed and finally caught up. Lin Kuang-Ming reached out and pulled him aboard, prompting the students on the train to burst into enthusiastic applause. Once Shih-Nan was on board, he discovered that a seam in his khaki trousers had split open. Just as he was feeling mortified, Mei-Lan told him to take off his trousers and used the needle and thread from her home economics class to sew them back together. Shih-Nan was deeply touched by her kindness.

Lin Kuang-Ming had a secret crush on Mei-Lan. Seeing this scene, he mistakenly believed that Mei-Lan had feelings for the plain-looking Shih-Nan and decided that he had to act first. The following morning, Kuang-Ming handed a love letter directly to Mei-Lan. She refused to accept it and explained that her parents would not allow her to date while she was in high school. She told Kuang-Ming to concentrate on his studies and set his sights on the university entrance examination. The rejection left Kuang-Ming deeply embarrassed.

Li Ching-Ya had originally been attracted to Lin Kuang-Ming, but when Kuang-Ming confessed his feelings to Mei-Lan, she felt disappointed. She therefore deliberately showed interest in Shih-Nan, hoping to make Kuang-Ming jealous. Unfortunately, Kuang-Ming was also secretly in love with Mei-Lan, so he found Ching-Ya’s advances difficult to accept.

One day, Mei-Lan passed by Shih-Nan’s family’s lei-cha shop and took the initiative to chat with him. His mother, Man-Mei, and his younger sister, Ai-Yu, happened to see them. Man-Mei immediately formed a favorable impression of the pretty and refined Mei-Lan and questioned Shih-Nan about their relationship. Shih-Nan admitted frankly that they were simply friends who got along well. Both Man-Mei and Ai-Yu encouraged Shih-Nan to pursue Mei-Lan, but Shih-Nan knew perfectly well that Mei-Lan regarded him only as a good friend.

When the results of the university entrance examination were announced, the four friends went their separate ways. Mei-Lan was admitted to the Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University; Kuang-Ming entered Tunghai University’s Department of Sociology; Tsai Shih-Nan was admitted to Fu Jen Catholic University’s Department of Law, Finance and Economics Division; and Ching-Ya entered Tamkang University’s Department of Chinese Literature.

In the 1980s, when being a university student was still considered a rare and prestigious accomplishment, the name “Fu Jen Law” already gave Shih-Nan’s parents, who ran a lei-cha shop in Neiwan, considerable pride. Matchmaker Auntie A-Hao came to their home carrying a collection of color photographs and profiles of eligible women, enthusiastically trying to persuade Shih-Nan’s parents to arrange blind dates for their son. Shih-Nan showed little interest. His mother, Man-Mei, suddenly thought of Chen Mei-Lan, the daughter of village representative Chen Chien-Li, and asked Auntie A-Hao to approach her family with a marriage proposal. Unexpectedly, the Chen family politely but firmly turned them down.

Auntie A-Hao refused to give up. At Man-Mei’s urging, she arranged a blind date with Wu Hsiao-Jung, a woman who taught at the village elementary school. At the matchmaking dinner, Wu Hsiao-Jung seemed to dislike Shih-Nan’s “orangutan” appearance—long arms and legs and a completely bald head—as well as his cold, crocodile-like demeanor. She did not look directly at him even once. True to her name and temperament, she maintained an icy, disapproving expression throughout the entire dinner. The whole experience felt like an exercise in self-humiliation, leaving Shih-Nan deeply hurt.

Shih-Nan’s father, Tien-Sheng, was even more upset because the woman’s parents had criticized their son’s old-fashioned appearance. He blamed his wife, Man-Mei, for spending money on the dinner only to have their son verbally humiliated. Needless to say, there was never a second blind date.

Fu Jen University had long enjoyed a reputation as a “bride school,” and the female students dressed fashionably. This did make Shih-Nan gradually realize that he was, after all, a “male animal.” But at the beginning of the school year, his senior classmate An Chuan-Mao warned him that if he regarded the bar examination and the judicial examination as his life goals, he needed the determination to live like a “Puritan.” He should not rush to earn “romance credits.” Once he passed the bar and judicial examinations and possessed those advantages, he would have no trouble finding a beautiful wife. Shih-Nan took these words seriously.

Most of the girls at university judged people by appearance. With his plain looks and introverted personality, which made him poor at socializing, the girls in his class naturally regarded him as a dispensable “ghost.” Shih-Nan’s roommate, Chen Chun-Sheng, was tall and handsome, played the guitar and harmonica, was witty and talkative, and spent money generously. He had an easy way with women.

Whenever Shih-Nan appeared with Chun-Sheng, he was merely an overlooked “human-shaped signboard.” Yet he did not mind. Nor did he feel inferior. He simply believed that everyone had his own way of living.

A popular rhyme circulated around campus: “Freshmen are sweet, sophomores are pretty, juniors sound the alarm, and seniors are wanted by no one.” Girls who were even moderately attractive were usually already “taken” by their freshman or sophomore years. Female law students were generally considered sharp and capable, and most male students viewed them as women who were “only good to admire from afar.” If a girl received no attention during her freshman year, she would often end up remaining single until graduation.

There were more than twenty members of the “Emei Sect” in Shih-Nan’s class, all like Taoist nuns. They often gathered on a small hill between the College of Law and College of Commerce known as “Waiting-for-My-Husband Slope,” where they ate, drank, sang, and comforted one another.

Many of Shih-Nan’s classmates spent their free time working part-time jobs, tutoring, or having fun. Shih-Nan, however, devoted himself to his books. He spent most of his time immersed in the library and had only some academic interaction with Zhou Tsui-Hua and Yu Hsiao-Shan, two inconspicuous members of the “Emei Sect” who had no boyfriends.

After the midterm examinations, Shih-Nan ranked near the top of the class. His classmates began to regard him as a self-righteous “priest.” Shih-Nan continued to live a Puritanical life. His classmates often treated him as a trash can for their personal troubles, but the girls never included Tsai Shih-Nan on their list of potential romantic partners.

He remained merely a gecko clinging to the wall, coldly observing everything around him. He never let out a sharp, mocking laugh to attract the attention of the “nuns,” because he had no desire to invite trouble. During his freshman year, he was perfectly satisfied with his situation. He had never even considered following the trend and finding someone to whom he could tie himself for life like a beast of burden.

This situation continued until the beginning of his sophomore year, when a junior student, Lin Yi-Chun, appeared and an irreversible “chemical reaction” gradually began to take place.

Because of her family circumstances, Yi-Chun was mature beyond her years and extremely practical. In the library, Tsai Shih-Nan and Yi-Chun gradually became acquainted. Yi-Chun noticed Shih-Nan and instinctively felt that this unassuming, mysterious man might share her interests and ambitions. She suspected that he, like her, had set his sights on the notoriously difficult bar and judicial examinations.

By asking him questions about her coursework, Yi-Chun was surprised to discover that Senior Shih-Nan was actually exceptionally intelligent. His thinking was clear and systematic, and he possessed the personality and aura of a genuine scholar.

As Yi-Chun studied the many sets of class notes and study notes Shih-Nan had organized, she became even more convinced that each notebook contained the carefully developed “secret martial arts manuals” of different schools and disciplines, distilled from his own understanding.

Lin Yi-Chun’s beautiful and delicate appearance made her the focus of attention among the male students in the department. The boys tried every possible way to attract her attention. Even Shih-Nan’s roommate, Chen Chun-Sheng, began courting Yi-Chun. He gave her flowers in person, invited her to movies, and frequently asked after her.

But all these flashy young men were wasting their efforts. Yi-Chun rejected them all.

When the “new department beauty,” Lin Yi-Chun, was seen studying and discussing their lessons closely with the plain-looking Tsai Shih-Nan in the library, many of the male students in the department first beat their chests in frustration. Then several of them tried to imitate a “scholar” and deliberately loitered around the library in an attempt to approach Yi-Chun.

These rather clumsy schemes were immediately seen through by Yi-Chun, whose response was to keep her distance from them.

Yi-Chun understood clearly that, under the practical premise of relying on education to “rise above one’s station,” the foundation of her interactions with her classmates was whether they shared similar interests and aspirations. If they were not pursuing the same path, there was no reason for them to associate.

Shih-Nan won Yi-Chun’s favor, and the two became inseparable, always appearing together and becoming the subject of gossip throughout the department. The “nuns” in their class were especially astonished.

Zhou Tsui-Hua exclaimed that “Snow White had met an orangutan,” joking that Tsai Shih-Nan had been “pretending to be a pig while eating the tiger.” No one had expected that, besides doing well academically, Tsai Shih-Nan would also prove to be highly accomplished at winning over his junior.

Even his roommate Chun-Sheng mocked him, saying, “A beautiful flower stuck in a pile of cow dung.” Shih-Nan could clearly sense the hostility behind Chun-Sheng’s words.

Only Shih-Nan himself understood that, at this stage, he was merely Yi-Chun’s “protector of the flower,” not her boyfriend.

During the winter vacation of his sophomore year, Yi-Chun invited Shih-Nan to Luodong, Yilan. Her mother ran a noodle stall at Luodong Night Market to support the family. Yi-Chun personally cooked noodles and prepared braised dishes for Shih-Nan.

That evening, the two walked along the Dongshan River. Yi-Chun told him that her father, who worked aboard ships, had disappeared and had never returned. Her mother had struggled to support the family ever since. For this reason, Yi-Chun wanted to establish herself as quickly as possible and improve her family’s quality of life.

Yi-Chun proposed an “agreement with a condition for taking effect”: if Shih-Nan could obtain a lawyer’s license or qualify as a judicial officer before the age of thirty, she would be willing to become his girlfriend.

For the first time in his life, Shih-Nan felt pressure coming from the girl he truly admired.

In the year they graduated from university, Tsai Shih-Nan narrowly failed both the judicial officer examination and the bar examination. Yi-Chun was not disappointed at all. On the contrary, she had even greater confidence in him.

Soon afterward, Shih-Nan was selected by lottery for military service in Kinmen. Yi-Chun accompanied him to Kaohsiung Xiaogang Airport, where he boarded a military vessel to Kinmen to serve as an officer candidate.

Before they parted, Yi-Chun removed a silver cross from around her neck and gave it to Shih-Nan to wear as a “token of their relationship.”

With Shih-Nan away, Chen Chun-Sheng, who was exempt from military service, entered Fu Jen’s graduate school. Taking advantage of his proximity to Yi-Chun, he calculated that he could win her over.

But Yi-Chun knew about Chun-Sheng’s reputation with women and remained deeply wary of him. No matter how attentively Chun-Sheng tried to show concern for her, Yi-Chun remained politely but firmly uninterested, leaving him helpless.

Far away in Kinmen, besides his family, the person Shih-Nan thought about most was Yi-Chun. The two wrote to each other every week, offering mutual care and encouragement.

In her letters, Yi-Chun told him that Chun-Sheng was trying to pursue her, but she urged Shih-Nan not to worry because a playboy like Chun-Sheng would never be someone she would consider dating.

Yi-Chun graduated from college in her senior year. Shih-Nan returned to Taiwan on leave and accompanied her to take the bar examination. The two spent a week together. Shih-Nan then took Yi-Chun back to his hometown to meet his family. Yi-Chun won his parents’ approval, and Ai-Yu also liked her very much. When the bar examination results were announced, Yi-Chun was the only lucky student in her department to pass. She specifically called Shih-Nan to tell him the good news. Encouraged by Yi-Chun, Shih-Nan became even more determined to pass the examination.

After completing his military service, Tsai Shih-Nan moved to Taipei. He did not want to increase the financial burden on his family, so he decided to work and study at the same time. During the day, Shih-Nan worked at a securities company, while Yi-Chun attended classes at a law training institute. In the evenings, Yi-Chun accompanied him to the library to study for the examinations. Long Tian-Hsing, the general manager of the securities company, greatly appreciated Tsai Shih-Nan’s steady and sincere character and promoted him to deputy manager after only eight months. Yi-Chun reminded Shih-Nan not to become complacent because of his achievements at the moment or even lose sight of his original purpose.

Long Tian-Hsing had no sons, only a spoiled and headstrong daughter named Long Ching. Ching frequently went to nightclubs and spent every day hanging around with wealthy young men. Eventually, she even moved in with Zhao Mu-Yu, a pretty boy with a prior drug conviction. Tian-Hsing was deeply troubled by his wayward daughter and secretly asked Tsai Shih-Nan for help, requesting that Shih-Nan find a way to persuade Ching to leave the pretty boy.

Shih-Nan approached Mu-Yu and had a serious conversation with him. Mu-Yu demanded a huge breakup payment before he would agree to leave Taipei. Long Tian-Hsing was extremely displeased when he heard the demand, so he hired some underworld associates to teach Mu-Yu a lesson. Unexpectedly, Mu-Yu accidentally died from a drug overdose, while Ching, afraid of facing legal consequences, disappeared without a trace.

The underworld associates considered their mission accomplished and insisted on receiving the full payment. Tian-Hsing tried to negotiate with them, but they became furious and actually came to Tian-Hsing’s company in broad daylight and fired shots at him.

Yi-Chun did not want Shih-Nan to become involved and suffer collateral damage. She strongly urged him to leave the company, but Shih-Nan believed he should not abandon Tian-Hsing at such a moment after Tian-Hsing had given him a valuable opportunity and supported his career. He therefore gathered several former comrades from his military police unit and dealt with the gang.

Afterward, Tian-Hsing was deeply grateful that Shih-Nan had stepped forward to help him. He provided the capital to establish a security company and entrusted Tsai Shih-Nan with its management. Shih-Nan brought in his former military police comrades, and together they built the security company into a thriving business. However, because Shih-Nan had not prepared adequately for the advanced civil service examination, he once again failed. Yi-Chun comforted him and encouraged him to try again.

Several months later, Ching returned home, already heavily pregnant. Tian-Hsing did not want his grandchild to be born with “an unknown father,” so he went to Shih-Nan’s residence to have a serious conversation with him, intending to entrust both his company and his daughter to Shih-Nan.

During their conversation, however, Yi-Chun, who had stayed overnight because she was not feeling well that day, woke from her sleep and overheard them.

Although Shih-Nan found himself in a difficult position, he reluctantly agreed to acknowledge the child born to Ching as his own. The news struck Yi-Chun like a bolt from the blue. She misunderstood Shih-Nan, believing that he was a spineless man who merely wanted to become someone else’s son-in-law and marry into a wealthy family. She therefore left a note and walked away.

After reading the note, Shih-Nan went looking for Yi-Chun, wanting to explain everything to her face to face. But Yi-Chun resigned from the law firm and quietly left Taipei. She went to Kaohsiung, where she found a job at a law firm, and unexpectedly reunited with Chen Chun-Sheng.

When Chun-Sheng learned that Yi-Chun had left Shih-Nan, he believed that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He began passionately pursuing her.

Ching suffered complications during childbirth and died, but insisted that the child be kept as a way to atone for her sins. Devastated by the death of his daughter, Tian-Hsing decided to retire and hand over his business to Shih-Nan.

Six months later, Shih-Nan received a wedding invitation from Lin Yi-Chun. She had fulfilled her wish to marry into a wealthy family, and her husband turned out to be Chen Chun-Sheng, Shih-Nan’s womanizing roommate.

Although Shih-Nan felt deeply embarrassed and hurt, he still attended their wedding and, with great dignity, offered the couple his sincere blessings. After Yi-Chun married into the Chen family, Shih-Nan became disillusioned with romantic relationships between men and women and devoted all his energy to his career.

After her marriage, Lin Yi-Chun had a daughter, Chen Hsin, with Chen Chun-Sheng. Chun-Sheng, however, remained unchanged, continuing to chase women outside the marriage. Eventually, he became involved with a gangster’s mistress and met a violent end.

The Chen family blamed Yi-Chun for failing to keep an eye on Chun-Sheng and for not giving the family a son to carry on the family line. Feeling that she could no longer remain in the Chen household, Yi-Chun returned to Taipei, opened her own law firm, and raised her daughter, Chen Hsin, by herself.

Several years later, Tsai Shih-Nan attended a parent-teacher meeting at his son Long Hsiang’s school and unexpectedly reunited with Chen Mei-Lan. Mei-Lan was married and had become the director of the school.

Mei-Lan suggested that Shih-Nan find a stepmother for his son and enthusiastically introduced him to her colleague, Zhao Fen-Fang. However, his son Long Hsiang did not like Auntie Zhao, who was extremely strict with him. In order to make her give up on becoming his stepmother, Long Hsiang repeatedly played tricks on Zhao Fen-Fang, and the relationship between father and son became increasingly tense.

Zhao Fen-Fang felt that she was simply not capable of becoming the boy’s stepmother, so she took the initiative to end her relationship with Shih-Nan.

More than ten years later, Tsai Shih-Nan had become the chairman of a major corporate group whose businesses extended into electronic technology, construction, biotechnology, and other fields. Shih-Nan’s son, Long Hsiang, was studying computer science and information engineering at National Taiwan University and was dating Chen Hsin, a junior student in the Department of Law.

Long Hsiang did not want his father to grow old without a companion, so he arranged for Shih-Nan to attend a matchmaking event, where he met Zhang Hsiu-Yi, an attractive woman in her thirties.

In her early thirties, Zhang Hsiu-Yi was mature, charming, and graceful in appearance. She was a sales manager at a cosmetics company. Sharp and capable, Hsiu-Yi secretly kept a pretty boy named Ye Chih-Hsuan. She did not genuinely love Shih-Nan and had an ulterior motive for dating him.

Hsiu-Yi asked Shih-Nan to arrange for her “cousin,” Chih-Hsuan, to work as a sales manager at the securities company under Shih-Nan’s corporate group. Her ultimate goal was to gradually carry out a plan to seize control of the group.

Shih-Nan noticed that although Chih-Hsuan was handsome and well-presented, he was very playful and frivolous in his behavior and was clearly not management material. He therefore agreed only to arrange for him to work as a frontline securities representative, responsible for executing clients’ stock trading orders.

Before long, Chih-Hsuan revealed his true colors. First, he became involved in an improper relationship with a female employee of the company, Hsu Man-Ning. Zhang Hsiu-Yi caught the two of them at home, lying on the bed in a disheveled state and behaving intimately. Chih-Hsuan pleaded desperately with Hsiu-Yi, and she softened and made him sign a written undertaking on the spot, promising that he would have no further contact with Man-Ning.

The incident attracted the attention of General Manager Tang Ke-Ming. Under Tang Ke-Ming’s pressure, Hsu Man-Ning voluntarily resigned from the company.

Hsu Man-Ning became pregnant and arranged to meet Chih-Hsuan. She demanded that he pay her a breakup settlement; otherwise, she threatened to sue him for abandoning her after initiating the relationship.

In a desperate attempt to raise the money for Man-Ning’s breakup settlement, Chih-Hsuan actually stole and sold stocks that had been entrusted to the company for safekeeping on behalf of its clients. He used the stolen money to give Man-Ning the funds to purchase a home and other property.

Tang Ke-Ming discovered what had happened and reported Chih-Hsuan to the police, who referred him for prosecution.

After being released on bail with the help of his family, Chih-Hsuan went to see Hsiu-Yi. But Hsiu-Yi had firmly decided that she would no longer have anything to do with him. She only wanted to hold on to Tsai Shih-Nan and make the most of her relationship with him. She even threw Chih-Hsuan out of her home.

Furious, Chih-Hsuan arranged to meet Shih-Nan and revealed Hsiu-Yi’s scheme, as well as the fact that she and Shih-Nan had been involved in a sugar relationship.

Shih-Nan met with Hsiu-Yi face to face and confronted her about the matter. Although Hsiu-Yi categorically denied everything, Shih-Nan had already been deeply shaken. He confronted her directly on the spot, leaving Hsiu-Yi filled with regret over what she had done.

Long Hsiang and Chen Hsin’s relationship had matured to the point where they began discussing marriage. Their parents met, and Shih-Nan and Yi-Chun unexpectedly became the parents of a couple who were about to marry. Yet both Shih-Nan and Yi-Chun understood each other without saying a word.

Long Hsiang and Chen Hsin accidentally saw their parents meeting for afternoon tea. By questioning each of them separately, they learned about their parents’ past romance and decided to bring the two of them together.

Although Shih-Nan had never forgotten his old feelings for Yi-Chun and was willing to accept his son’s arrangement, Yi-Chun felt that the two of them had already passed the age when they could comfortably build a life together as husband and wife. She believed that being friends would allow them to feel more at ease than becoming family.

She therefore gently declined her children’s attempt to bring them together.

The End